 Thanks for checking out this book review video and this is my follow-up as I promised to the last one I put out the last one was the Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker. Go back and check that one out because I highly recommend that book. This one is a story follow-up to the Hellbound Heart. This came out not long ago. The book sits at 361 pages. So in contrast to the Hellbound Heart, there was 164 pages. This is a huge increase in reading. So this book actually took me a bit because like I said, I'm I'm a slow reader, but that's just how it is. But this is Clive Barker once again, and this is his The Scarlet Gospels, which Scarlet Gospels in this, I'm not gonna, you know, ruin what it is, but basically this is the conclusion to the Pinhead story. If you saw my Hellbound Heart video, like I explained in there, his name's not actually Pinhead in here. It's Hell Priest. Pinhead came from, you know, a moniker they came up with on the movie set. And it's interesting because in this book that he takes some jabs at Pinhead, and the character of Hell Priest actually has been named Pinhead by people who are aware of him. And that comes up numerous times in the book and he makes these comments of kind of disgust of like how Pinhead is such a stupid name and he hates that moniker and everything. So it's kind of cool to see that happen because I know in real life Clive Barker actually didn't really like that people were calling him Pinhead. So it's cool that that kind of plays out here. But the story, for me in my opinion, love the Hellbound Heart like way more than the story. From what I understand, this is actually a melding of the Hell Priest story and Harry D'Amore. Who was in, I forget what they're called. He did a series of books that are kind of closer. I wouldn't say their kids books, but they're closer to like a teen lit horror book. And Harry D'Amore was a kind of this guy who would like fight demons basically. So he ends up showing up in this as the opposition to Hell Priest. I think the story in this book starts very, very intensely. It starts very suddenly like you jump into it and it is exciting. It is crazy. It is messed up. It is gory. It is just like whoa. I was hooked. But my problem is as I kept reading it started taking these gradual steps down in my interest level and the pacing of the book and the material of what was happening. So it just started going down, down, down, down, down until I got to like the last 100 pages, maybe not even 100, but 100 or less. And it was hard. It became a bit of a slog for me to kind of get through. Now part of that's coming from the fact that I'm a picky reader because I don't read a whole lot. I want to make sure that what I am reading is intensely interesting to me. So when a book starts to wane in with my interest, then it starts to feel like more mature and I start to really slow down on the reading. And I'm just like, oh, do I really have to go back to this? But I always feel that need to complete the book. And I'm glad I completed this. I'm definitely glad because I'd say the first like half of the story is really good. I really like it. There's a lot of sense of mystery. Like, where is this going? What's next? There's some cool characters in it. But I just feel like at the end it starts to kind of fall apart and just become a slog. It starts going really slow. And there's something that happens in the end of it. I'm not going to spoil anything, but there's something that happens in the end of it that's just like, you know, I could have done without that. It seems a little cliche to me. It's not 100% cliche. It's got a twist to it that is Clive Barker's own twist on it. But there's something employed in the story that I don't like when it's employed in the story. So I, you know, it seems cheap to me is what I'll say. But that said, I love Clive Barker. I always will. I've read plenty of his other books that I really, really love. Obviously, if you watch my review of the Hellbound Heart, I, that's like one of my favorite books, if not my favorite book. But it's just hard. It's hard with things like this because so much time had passed between him putting out that book and the Hellraiser movies being out or at least the original or the only ones that matter, the first two, honestly, it had been a long time. And then this book comes out and it's kind of like, well, this is the continuation of Hellpreast's story. And expectations are high for things like that, you know, and for me personally, I'll admit, like expectations were high for a really good story. And I felt like it was going to meet that based off the first few hundred, like over 100 pages, maybe even up to 200 pages. And then it just started not meeting expectations. So, you know, those things are tough, but I'm glad that I read the book. I'm glad that I got the rest of the story in. And there is good stuff in there, like all the way through there really is. And his writing is really good. He has a really good flow to his syntax, like the way he writes has awesome flow to it. I like his level of description. He describes things enough. He doesn't go overboard like someone like a George RR Martin goes way overboard with describing stuff. And he doesn't do too little, like I can't think of anyone to reference at the moment, but there are authors out there who don't describe enough. And you're kind of like, come on, like paint the scene for me. Tell me what the environment's like. But no, he's kind of, he hits that sweet spot for me at least with his type of writing. So, yeah. So anyway, I don't want to make this too long, but I cautiously recommend this. I mean, if you listen to everything I had to say, and it sounds like you could still like it, go for it. I would say if you have any inkling of an interest in knowing what the end story is for Hell Priest, then do it. And that's not necessarily saying that he's gone at the end. Just saying. So it just means this is the last one Clyde Barker said he's doing with that character. So there you go. But if it's, if that's what you're into, if you want to find that out, I would recommend going ahead and reading it, especially if you're a quick reader, and if you can just like get through books, that's good. Because like I said, there's a lot of really good stuff in the beginning of it that I think is worth reading, definitely worth reading. I just wish he would have stuck more on that path instead of going down the path he did much later in the book. But that's just me. But anyway, I still love Clyde Barker. We'll never stop loving Clyde Barker. Hopefully I get to meet him in August. That line is going to be insane. I know it. I just know it. But anyway, thanks everyone for checking this out. Go check out Scarlet Gospels if you're so inclined. Hit that subscribe. It can mean a lot for me. I keep, I want to keep doing a bunch of videos. Give me recommendations too. Like are there any books I should start working on that you really want to see me review? I am currently reading one and I have another one in mind to go to after that. But if someone gets in there and you put a comment down there and you're like, oh, this horror book is great. You got to read this. I'll go for it. I'll insert that into my reading schedule. And yeah, so comments, thumbs up, subscribe. Thank you very much. Till next time, keep it brutal.